Supernatural phenomena, romance, great banter between the leading pair, Seishun Buta Yarou wa Bunny Girl Senpai no Yume wo Minai (Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai) is an interesting ride of an anime. It uses the supernatural component to create interesting but also rather convoluted story arcs. However, it does a really good job of leaning into itself when it comes to the slice of life, comedy and romance aspects, which round it out so well, any Cancer would find it hard not to binge this, and even harder not to get taken away on the emotional rollercoaster Bunny Girl Senpai eventually becomes!

Cancers can see themselves in Hanagaki Takemichi, who strives to save the life of a woman he dated when they were just middle school kids. Despite his complete lack of confidence and timidness, Takemichi stands up to adversity time and time again. He also gets carried away by his emotions, which run deep because of the various horrible experiences he has had in his life. Cancers will also find themselves depicted in Takemichi’s decisions to try to solve problems much bigger than himself not because he’s affected, but because they have hurt the people he cares about. If you’re a Cancer who likes delinquents and hair dye, Tokyo Revengers is for you.

With Weathering With You, Cancerians can feel seen by the high intensity feels that this title can give. Brought to you by the same mind that gave us Kimi no Na Wa (Your Name), Weathering With You is yet another display of strange supernatural phenomena, the springtime of youth, budding romance and of course, unfair circumstances that are certain to give any Cancer watching it a lot of emotions to process.

Comedy, romance, and loads of drama, the reboot of the 2001 classic Fruits Basket is proving to be one of the best anime of recent time and with good reason – the story is solid and with a brilliant adaptation of the source material, this stands to be a great anime experience for anybody, not just the emotional Cancer! Tooru’s circumstances, together with the various side stories presented by the other characters create a mosaic of incredibly well-written character stories that not only tug at the heart strings, they threaten to tear them apart!

This 2021 Spring anime is at the top of the list simply because unlike any of the other shows on this list, Fumetsu no Anata e (To Your Eternity) is the only one that isn’t necessarily a romance. While romance is technically still a possibility in this anime, it is yet to be explored in a way that seems significant enough to even consider it a romance anime. It is a slice of life in a very strange sense – following the adventures of the immortal Fushi gives the show a melancholic feel particularly because of the various ways he has had to part with various characters in the show. The curse of immortality has yet to truly show itself as Fushi is yet to outlive a longtime friend; however, the looming thought that whatever semblance of happiness the show brings up is sure to be followed up by something tragic never quite leaves you. Maybe because we’ve seen several beautiful characters lose their lives already. This show has action, slice of life, heaps of emotional moments that Cancers will find themselves unable to peel away from. We recommend letting the series end first before starting!

An aloof high school boy with no friends and no interest in the world around him finds comfort in the pages of books. However, when he comes across a handwritten book titled “Living With Dying”, his life changes forever. He very quickly meets its owner: Yamauchi Sakura, a popular girl in his class. Due to the fact that he read some of the book’s contents, Sakura tells him about a secret no one else knows apart from her own family – she’s suffering from a terminal pancreatic disease. Realising her own mortality, Sakura decides to live life to the fullest. The boy shows no concern or sympathy for what she shares with him that day and for that reason, Sakura takes an interest in him, practically forcing him to accompany her for the rest of her short life. Despite the fact that they’re polar opposites, they grow a little closer through each interaction and the boy’s closed off world opens up little by little.

An obvious choice if we’re recommending it to people who are archetypically the emotional type, I Want to Eat Your Pancreas is the only definite tearjerker on this list. With the tragedy of the story well developed long before you even watch it, the growing relationship between the protagonist and Sakura reflects a Cancerian stubbornness and loyalty when it comes to the people close to them. Another reason why this would be a good watch for a Cancer is due to the fact that the average Cancer’s connection to their emotions and the emotions of others is a staunch opposite to the main character’s stoicism and hence, a reflection of some of the people they come into contact with in their lives.

Uenoyama Ritsuka is a high school boy who comes across as a bit of a delinquent. His favourite things in the whole world include playing basketball and playing the guitar; however, lately, he finds these activities to be getting boring. He sleeps his school days away until he one day comes across Sato Mafuyu, a soft-spoken student at his school who walks around with a broken guitar. Slightly annoyed by the desolate Mafuyu, Ritsuka decides to fix the guitar for him, soon realising that he has no knowledge of the guitar whatsoever. However, Mafuyu becomes attached to Ritsuka after he fixes the guitar, much to Ritsuka’s annoyance… that is, until he hears Mafuyu sing.

Given is an anime about music. With many different shows touching on this basic theme, Given brings with it an emotional aspect that is subtle but prevalent even in the initial stages of the show. The soft-spoken Mafuyu’s attachment to Ritsuka after one act of kindness is quite similar to the average Cancer’s tendency to grow attached to people even after a short space of time. Music is also a creative pursuit very much tied to emotion and Cancers, being the emotional whirlpools that they are, can find themselves somewhat represented by Given in its entirety.

Bell Cranel is a young man living in the city of Orario hoping to one day become the best adventurer in the land. After coming across the goddess Hestia by chance, he gains her support in his dreams and embarks on a quest deep in the city’s monster-ridden catacombs, also known as the Dungeon. Survival is never guaranteed down there, but Bell is determined to make his dream a reality and make Hestia proud.

A very important theme in DanMachi is loyalty and the importance of interpersonal relationships. It is because of this theme that the Divine Houses in the show can exist at all and, in the case of the protagonist, Bell Cranel, his devotion and attachment to his goddess, Hestia, is an exemplary case of Cancerian loyalty. These are elements that openly explore emotion and perhaps even small drops of romance – things that truly get the crabs of the Zodiac happily snapping their claws!

Shuchiin Academy is a prestigious school with an excellent reputation. Shirogane Miyuki and Shinomiya Kaguya are the school’s top representatives. Miyuki is ranked the top student in the nation and is respected by the entire student body, serving as the student council president. Kaguya, the vice-president, is the eldest daughter of the Shinomiya family and excels in pretty much every field. Seen as the shining beacon of the school, they elicit much envy, but they are also thought to be the perfect couple. However, despite the fact that they both harbour feelings for each other, they’re both too proud to admit it – the first to confess will be considered to be weaker by the other. With their pride on the line, the two make it their mission to make the other confess their feelings first!

While this seems counter-intuitive and perhaps even contradictory to what the Cancer sign is thought to embody and symbolise, the intense love-based psychological warfare waged by Kaguya and Miyuki is still very much Cancerian in nature. Hear us out for a bit – the two are in tune with each other’s feelings subconsciously; however, the whirlpool of emotion includes the feeling of pride and a fear of rejection that fuels the entire show. In a long-winded sense, the fact that the anime’s protagonists are well aware of their own feelings and those of the other to some extent is very Cancerian, but the fact that they’d rather play games than be out with it is anything but.

Yadomi Jinta lives the life of a recluse; refusing to go to school on most days and playing videogames all day. His long-deceased childhood friend, Honma “Menma” Meiko, appears to him on a hot summer day in order to get him to grant her forgotten wish. Initially thinking himself to be hallucinating, Jinta soon realises that he’s seeing Menma’s ghost. He and his childhood friends grew apart after Menma died but they find themselves patching things up in order to finally lay Menma to rest. Forced to revisit the past, the group must confront their own guilt in addition to granting Menma’s final wish.

Childhood friendships, childhood trauma and unresolved feelings – yes, this is definitely the kind of anime a Cancer would watch! The story itself deals with the various emotions of the characters and gives each one a characteristic feeling that they developed as a result of Menma’s death or as a result of the collapsing of the friend group thereafter. Consequently, Cancers and their emotional nature can feel right at home in the unending torrent of emotion that is AnoHana.